In case you were wondering, your umbrella isn’t the only thing to go UP when the rain falls DOWN.

Flushes of pollutants are washed off surfaces during storms and make their unwelcomed journey into streams and rivers of the local watershed. These pollutants traveling with the stormwater are major contributors for increased water pollution. These are problems that touch many aspects of our everyday lives, but are very often overlooked, and I look forward to changing that.

Check out NepRWA’s page about stormwater and how problematic it has become for our water systems.

I just completed my first month with NepRWA as their Water Resources Engineer, and am very quickly getting ramped up on new design projects related to management of stormwater pollution.

I recently attended the Neponset Stormwater Partnership, where I was fortunate to meet many stakeholders from the different communities who are invested in becoming better educated and making a difference within the watershed. One of my many goals is to lend support to these important partners as they implement their stormwater initiatives.

I’m also working on a brand new stormwater tool with our Environmental Scientist,  Chris Hirsch, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). The goal of the tool is to use many different available mapping layers to identify, rank, and prioritize parcels and roadway segments to serve as candidates for further field evaluation for stormwater retrofits. Retrofitting is a fancy new buzzword that involves finding and upgrading older parking lots and roadways that were built without modern features to clean up polluted runoff before it reaches waterways. Selecting an area for a stormwater retrofit requires careful planning of targeted physical and environmental factors that our communities truly need – and want – to help with.

Finally, I just attended a professional conference at the Massachusetts Ecosystem Climate Adapation Network Conference (Mass ECAN), which was packed with scientists, engineers, and city planners from both the private and public corners of New England’s environmental work force. While there were many presentations about threats of coastal flooding, erosion, and habitat destruction, it was very apparent that stormwater was as big of a player in climate change resiliency as coastal challenges are with sea level rise. The stormwater conversation is happening and my plan is to make the language surrounding this important topic as common as the buzzwords, ‘sea level rise’ and ‘climate change’.

This has been a busy and rewarding first month for me, and I look forward to really getting my feet wet (pun intended) and doing what I can to influence the conversation on this important topic.

Hi I’m Taylor!